The Rosy Cross
Dante's Divine Comedy
Dante Aligheiri (1265-1321) was an Italian Christian poet wrote his great cosmic vision in Ravenna. "The work is a poetic trilogy, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Through the first two sections the poet is escorted by Virgil, who stands for natural reason. He is taken into Paradise by Beatrice [an unrequited love of his youth], reason enlightened by divine revelation, who leads him through the hierarchy of the nine heavens. From there Bernard of Clairvaux, the great contemplative mystic, guides him towards the beatific vision. And now his sight is strengthened, and is able to pierce through the beams of Divine light to their very source. And here he discerns the whole universe in God."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions
"In that abyss I saw how love held bound
Into one volume all the leaves whose flight
Is scattered through the universe around..."
- Dante Aligheiri, The Divine Comedy
"Gradually he sees the Creator through the creation, three circles of three colors, yet occupying one space, one reflected from the next, and the third of flame emanating from both (here the Christian theology of the Trinity has determined the details of the mystical vision), and through these a human form."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions
"High fantasy lost power and here broke off,
Yet, as a wheel move smoothly, free from jars,
My will and my desire were turned by love,
The love that moves the sun and the other stars."
- Dante Aligheiri, The Divine Comedy
"Misattribution of authorship was common and often deliberate in Roman times. The work of a Neoplatonist was misrepresented as a Christian saint, and so The Celestial Hierarchies of Dionysus became, over many centuries, the model for the Christian universe and the prototype for Dante's influential Divine Comedy. It is pure, late-Roman paganism."
- Colin Low, The Necronomicon and Ontological Pressure
A prominent Freemason writer of the nineteenth century interprets The Divine Comedy which in a light which is contrary to Dante's Christian piety.
"The work of the great Ghibellin is a declaration of war against the Papacy, by bold revelations the Mysteries. The Epic of Dante is Johannite and Gnostic, an audacious application, like that of the Apocalypse, of the figures and numbers of the Kabbalah to the Christian dogmas, and a secret negation of every thing absolute in these dogmas. His journey through the supernatural worlds is accomplished like the initiation into the Mysteries of Eleusis and Thebes. He escapes from that gulf of Hell over the gate of which the sentence of despair was written, by reversing the positions of is head and feet, that is to say, by accepting the direct opposite of the Catholic dogma: and then he re-ascends to the light, by using the Devil himself as a monstrous ladder. Faust ascends to heaven, by stepping on the head of the vanquished Mephistopheles. Hell is impassable for those only who know not how to turn back from it. We free ourselves from its bondage by audacity."
"His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His Heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like the Patancle [sic] of Ezekiel. In the center of this cross blooms a rose and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first time publicly expounded and almost categorically explained."
"The Rose was for the Initiates the living and blooming symbol of the revelation of the harmonies of being. It was the emblem of beauty, life, love, and pleasure. Flamel, or the Book of the Jew Abraham, made it the hieroglyphical sign of the accomplishment of the great Work."
"To unite the Rose to the Cross, was the problem proposed by the High Initiation."
- General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma
"In the Islamic tradition...Gabriel serves as the revealing or dictating Angel co-extensive with what in Christian tradition might otherwise be called the Holy Spirit. Here, whatever else one might say of him, Gabriel is the guide in the Highest Heaven - traditions about Mohammed too are not immune from such heavenly Ascents - not unlike the role Dante ascribes to Virgil and finally Beatrice in his rendition of a similar ecstatic ascent and vision."
- Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered
"I stood in silent ecstasy
Revealing that which o'ver my spirit went and came.
Lo, in His face commingled
Is every charm and grace;
The whole of Beauty singled
Into a perfect face
Beholding Him would cry,
'There is no God but He and He is the most High.'"
- Ibn Al-Farid
"...The Beatific Vision, beheld by Dante in the radiant celestial bowl of the rose of Paradise, and to be seen, finally, by Galahad within the mystic vessel of the Grail" are the same."
- Joseph Cambell, Creative Mythology
The Rosicrucian Manifestoes
"Member of a worldwide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times. The name derives from the order's symbol, a combination of a rose and a cross. The teachings of Rosicrucianism combine elements of occultism reminiscent of a variety of religious beliefs and practices."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"The psychological power of the cabal as archetype is illustrated by the original 'Rosicrucians' of the early seventeenth century. They - whoever 'they' were - announced their 'invisible' existence through the publication of inflammatory tracts and pamphlets. Their historical existence as an organization has never been satisfactorily established. Yet the belief in their existence was enough to engender a wave of hysteria throughout Europe - and, as Francis Yates has argued, to play a vital role in the development of seventeenth-century thought, culture and political institutions."
- Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy
"Others, however, view 16th- and 17th-century developments as simply a revival of the order and contend that Rosicrucian doctrines not only flourished in ancient Egypt but were espoused by such outstanding philosophical and religious figures as Plato, Jesus, Philo of Alexandria, Plotinus, and others. There is, however, no reliable evidence to date the order's history earlier than the 17th century."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"The Rosicrucians offer an esoteric mystical gnosis. Truth is the Great Architect of the Universe. There are three principles, Salt, Sulfur and Mercury, all contained in primal matter, Phar-Min Adama, represented by a circle encompassed by a square (the earth-heaven symbolism in Taoist art). The circle symbolizes Unity, from which the Quaternary Number results. Other Mystic Figures include the interlaced Equilateral Triangles, and the Blazing Star, the latter standing for 'that subtle Quintessence which penetrates all things in a moment by its moist and temperate fire and so communicates its gnosis'. The catechism from which that phrase is taken goes on: 'Why do you people speak so obscurely? - So that only the Sons of God may understand me.' But the ultimate aim is 'the joy of supplying the needs of men of good report' and 'only to be ignored by the world, only to live for God, Who is the sole aim of our true brethren'."
- John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions
(2) Christian Rosenkreuz
"We, deputies of the principal College of the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, are staying visibly and invisibly in this town by the Grace of the Most High, to whom the heart of the just turns. We show and teach without books or masques how to speak the language of every country where we wish to be, to bring our fellow men out of the error of death."
- Rosicrucian broadside
"An examination of this most intriguing of secret organizations must begin with the Fama Fraternitatis, the earliest document that clearly and unambiguously mentions the brotherhood by name and purports to tell the story of its foundation. Written anonymously in German, the pamphlet was part of a larger Protestant treatise entitled in its first English translation The Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World: together with the Fama Fraternitatis of the Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, Written to All the Learned and the Rulers of Europe. The German manuscript probably began circulating around 1610, and the work was subsequently published in several languages. The first printed edition appeared in 1614 in the town of Kassel in western Germany."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
"The Fama recounts the journeys of Christian Rosenkreuz, the reputed founder of Rosicrucianism, who was allegedly born in 1378 and lived for 106 years."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"Rosenkreutz apparently demonstrated great natural skills in medicine and healing, which bought him to the attention of the wisest men in the city. And he, in turn, found their knowledge of science, mathematics, and other arcane matters inspiring. The youth forthwith decided to put aside his original itinerary and to seek the wisdom of Arabia at its fount. The sages of Damascus directed him to a city called Damcar - a place that has never been identified and is presumed by many to be mythical. In Damcar, the Fama recounts the learned men 'to whom Nature was discovered' received the precocious boy 'not as a stranger but as one whom the had long expected; they called him by his name, and showed him many other secrets' - among them mathematics, physics, alchemy, and a document the Fama refers to as the Book M. This last treasure, whose full name is thought by some to be Book Mundi, or Book of the World, is said to have held the secrets of the universe. Young Rosenkreutz decided that he would translate this prodigious work into Latin, so that he might share it with others upon his return to Europe.
"After three years in Damcar, Rosenkreutz traveled to Egypt, where he studied natural history and, presumably, the metaphysical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary ancient Egyptian sage. The youth then journeyed to Fez, in Morocco, where he was introduced to magic and to interpretations of the Scriptures based on the medieval Jewish system of mysticism known as the Cabala."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
"From the Arabians C. R. C. [Christian Rosenkreuz] also learned of the elemental peoples and how, with their aid, it was possible to gain admission to the ethereal world where dwelt the genii and Nature spirits. C.R.C. thus discovered that the magical creatures of the Arabian Nights Entertainment actually existed, though invisible to the ordinary mortal. From astrologers living in the desert far from the concourse of the market-place he was further instructed concerning the mysteries of the stars, the virtues resident in the astral light, the rituals of magic and invocation, the preparation of therapeutic talismans, and the binding of the genii. C. R. C. became an adept n the gathering of medicinal herbs, the transmutation of metals, and the manufacture of precious gems by artificial means. Even the secret of the Elixir of Life and the Universal Panacea were communicated to him. Enriched thus beyond the dreams of Croesus, the Holy Master returned to Europe and there established a House of Wisdom which he called Domus Sancti Spiritus. This house he enveloped in clouds, it is said, so that men could not discover it. What are these 'clouds,' however, but the rituals and symbols under which is concealed the Great Arcanum-that unspeakable mystery which every true Mason must seek if he would become in reality a 'Prince of the Royal Secret'?"
- Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 405
Christian Rosenkreuz "is now generally regarded to have been a symbolic rather than a real character, whose story provided a legendary explanation of the order's origin. According to the Fama, Rosenkreuz acquired secret wisdom...which he subsequently imparted to three others after his return to Germany. The number of his disciples was later increased to eight, who went to different countries."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"Rosenkreuz himself finally died in 1484...and was buried in a large tomb, a secret one naturally. After all the original members of the group died, the location of Rosenkreuz's tomb was forgotten, and was rediscovered only by accident by members of the third generation of adepts who were building one of their secret dwellings."
- Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult
The following is a description of the tomb:
"In the morning following, we opened the door, and there appeared to our sight a vault of seven sides and corners, every side five foot broad, and the height of eight foot. Although the sun never shined in this vault, nevertheless it was enlightened with another sun, which had learned this from the sun, and was situated in the upper part in the center of the ceiling. In the midst, instead of a tombstone, was a round altar covered over with a plate of brass, and thereon this engraven: ...
'This is all clear and bright, as also the seven sides and the two Heptagoni: so we kneeled altogether down and gave thanks to the sole wise, sole mighty and sole eternal God, who hath taught us more than all men's wits could have found out, praised be his holy name. This vault we parted in three parts, the upper part or ceiling, the wall or side, the ground or floor.
'Of the upper part you shall understand no more of it at this time, but that it was divided according to the seven sides in the triangle, which was in the bright center; but what therein is contained, you shall God willing (that are desirous of our society) behold the same with your own eyes; but every side or wall is parted into ten figures, every one with their several figures and sentences, as they are truly shown and set forth Concentratum here in our book'."
- from the first pamphlet, "Fama"
"Inside the tomb there were said to have been alchemical books with a quasi-political overtone, definitely favoring the court of Frederick V, the Elector Palatine. All this was disseminated as gospel in a kind of alchemical Protestant revival. Curiously, these texts, The Fama and The Confessio, had many doctrinal similarities to Dee's Hieroglyphic Monad, so that it appears that Dee's earlier work was used as the model for the Rosicrucian broadsheets by their authors."
- Terence McKenna, The Archaic Revival
< "Satisfied that they had done as Father Christian had wished 120 years before, the brothers closed the door of the vault and sealed it, knowing that it was now time to go forth with their message of worldwide moral renewal and to open the ranks to a new and larger membership." - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
(3) Paracelsus
"Included amongst the books [inside Rosenkreuz's tomb] was "a copy of the Vocabularium of Paracelsus, by the renowned Swiss physician and alchemist." Paracelsus, "whose real name was Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, was not even born until 1493, nearly a decade after Christian Rosenkreutz is said to have been buried."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
"Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist who died in 1541, is also regarded by some as the real founder of Rosicrucianism."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
"Paracelsus, the Swiss Hermes, was initiated into the secrets of alchemy in Constantinople and there beheld the consummation of the magnum opus. He is consequently entitled to be mentioned among those initiated by the Arabians into the Rosicrucian work. Cagliostro was also initiated by the Arabians and, because of the knowledge he had thus secured, incurred the displeasure of the Holy See. From the unprobed depths of Arabian Rosicrucianism also issued the illustrious Comte de St.-Germain, over whose Masonic activities to this day hangs the veil of impenetrable mystery. The exalted body of initiates whom he represented, as well as the mission he came to accomplish, have both been concealed from the members of the Craft at large and are apparent only to those few discerning Masons who sense the supernal philosophic destiny of their Fraternity."
- Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 405
(4) Johann Valentin Andrae
"The third and last book in the Rosicrucian trilogy, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, appeared a year later in Strasbourg....The story of replete with rich allegorical details, as well as cosmological, alchemical, astrological, magical and chivalric symbols."
"As the allegory began, Rosenkreutz was preparing for the celebration. All manner of trials, ordeals, and strange initiation rites were put before him, but he triumphed over them in what can be seen as a spiritual progression. Finally, he reached his destination and was greeted as the guest of honor. He was invested with the chivalric Order of the Golden Stone, an apparent reference to the legendary philosophers' stone, by means of which base substances could be turned into gold and silver. As in the earlier tracts, the author went to great lengths to indicate that the goal of Rosenkreutz as well as all the others who received the Golden Stone was a transmutation of the spirit and not the crasser sort of alchemy."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
This tract was eventually claimed by "a German Lutheran pastor Johann Valentin Andrae (1586-1654) Andrae had envisioned a society for the reformation of social life - and he, with or without assistance from others, created the legend and published the documents describing it. A few have seen Rosicrucianism as a complete hoax. Most believe, however, that either Andrae formed an order combining his interest in esotericism and the reformation of society, which the documents promoted, or, more likely, Andrae wanted the documents to catalyze others to initiate the Rosicrucian work."
- J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America
"...It is a singular coincidence that Andrea was a fervent Lutheran - and Martin Luther's coat of arms bore a rose and cross."
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
(5) Rosicrucians in England
"Several other documents on the Rosicrucian thesis were written, all confessing to have solved the riddle of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. This was also the name of a book written by Robert Fludd. Fludd is attacked by Kepler as a mystic who uses numbers as a form of cabalistic symbolism, and engages in a wild defense of his writings. Almost immediately, several Rosicrucian documents are written and circulated, all published by the same publisher in the Palatinate."
"One of the truly great minds of that secret fraternity - in fact, the moving spirit of the whole enterprise - was Sir Francis Bacon, whose prophecy of the coming age forms the theme of his New Atlantis and whose vision of the reformation of knowledge finds expression in the Novum Organum Scientiarum, the new organ of science or thought. In the engraving at the beginning of the latter volume may be seen the little ship of progressivism sailing out between the Pillars of Galen and Avicenna, venturing forth beyond the imaginary pillars of church and state upon the unknown sea of human liberty. It is significant that Bacon was appointed by the British Crown to protect its interests in the new American Colonies beyond the sea. We find him writing of this new land, dreaming of the day when a new world and a new government of the philosophic elect should be established there, and scheming to consummate that end when the time should be ripe. Upon the title page of the 1640 edition of Bacon's Advancement of Learning is a Latin motto to the effect that he was the third great mind since Plato. Bacon was a member of the same group to which Sir Walter Raleigh belonged, but Bacon's position as Lord High Chancellor protected him from Raleigh's fate [state execution]. Every effort was made, however, to humiliate and discredit him. At last, in the sixty-sixth year of his life, having completed the work which held him in England, Bacon feigned death and passed over into Germany, there to guide the destinies of his philosophic and political fraternity for nearly twenty-five years before his actual demise."
"In the Apology, Fludd described the Rosy Cross brothers as true Christians and the spiritual descendants of Hermes Trismegistus. He declared himself to be a disciple without being a member, and he thought it possible that there was no formal Rosicrucian organization; a community of minds sharing the same spiritual and philosophic goals was quite enough to constitute a movement, in his opinion. 'I affirm that every Theologus of the Church Mystical is a real Brother of the Rosy Cross'."
"The whole of mankind is surrounded by elemental spirits [jinn] which can do him service. These could be brought to his will by the Rosicrucian by imprisoning them in a ring, a mirror or a stone, and compelling them to appear when desired. Here is a distinct parallel with Arabian cabbalistical literature, some of which, folklorized, is in the Arabian Nights."
"Precisely as Celtic gods became the fairies of Christan Irish folklore, so did Persian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Indian become the Jinn of Moslem popular belief."
The Rosicrucians "claimed not to be bound by the limits of the present world, but to be able to pass into the next world (inaccessible only in appearance) and to be able to work in it, and to come back safe (and self-same) out of it, bringing their trophies with them..."
Hargrave Jennings, a founder of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, "hinted as strongly as he could that these rites and mysteries were of a fundamentally sexual nature, though to make his point in Victorian England he was obliged to resort to some involved and often poetically purple prose. Dancing around the theme of Tantric sex as the basis of the Rosicrucian philosophy, Jennings was almost specific when he pointed out that...the Masonic seal of Solomon symbolizes the intertwined triangles of male and female, which in conjunction represent life..."
"[Sir Francis] Bacon,
-
- Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 407
"Fludd singled out for broad reform the realm of mathematical sciences, including geometry, arithmetic, algebra, and optics, and he went on to express a kind of Rosicrucian dream that humankind's ethics, politics, law, theology, and economics might all be subjected to the scrutiny of virtuous people and ultimately made more harmonious."
- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects
- Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies
- Joseph Campbell, The Portable Arabian Nights
- Hargrave Jennings, The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries
- Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks
Related Sites
California College, Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis
Masonic studies on the Kabbalah and Hermes Trismegitus - Rosicrucian documents
Lexicon deLux
Rare books on the Western mystical tradition, including the Rosicrucian Fraternity
Hyperlinks